The Perseids never became visible thanks to cloud cover that moved in with the evening, but at least sunset gave off a nice glow and showed off the downtown Chicago skyline.
During most of the winter in Chicago, the sky is a uniform leaden gray. Today, however, there was a moment of sunrise with some defined clouds. Right under the sunrise are the steel mills of Indiana with their plumes. During summer, the sun will rise over the Chicago Park District field house to your left.
The windy, rainy day overall put me in an autumn mood, and I thought I’d take video of Lake Michigan’s wave action. Instead, I was struck by this unexpected rainbow — the sun wasn’t out.
Steelworkers Park doesn’t seem to get much traffic, but on this day a family was having a picnic not far from the sculpture. It turned out to be Roman Villarreal, the artist. A former steelworker from a young age, he posed with his work.
I realized Mr. Villarreal had been behind this gem at Big Marsh Park.
Back to Steelworkers Park: Some of the old infrastructure has been repurposed into a climbing wall.
After a summer storm on the way back, a rainbow appeared, mandating a stop at Jackson Park near La Rabida Children’s Hospital.
This year, the weather cooled off in February instead of January, but so far I’ve seen only a faint wisp of sea smoke once. Even though it is mostly above 0ºF, it’s cold enough outside, with frequent fits of snow.
I’ve no statistics to support my idea that June seems to be prime time for summer storms. It was on June 30, 2011, that a sudden hailstorm devastated Garfield Park Conservatory. Yesterday, this evening storm followed a few afternoon ones. No hail by me, but interesting skies.
This rainbow appeared only eight minutes after I took a photo of the double rainbow. The entire sky, including color, had changed that fast.
